Friday, December 16, 2016

Top Google Searches in Korea, 2016

Google has released their end-of-year top searches, including for Korea. I've taken the lists for Korea, converted them to English, and tried to say a few words about what each keyword means, and give some background or context to it. Hopefully it help you get a sense of what was popular or newsworthy among Koreans in 2016, and why.

The list was divided into the Top 10 keywords for each of these sections:

종합 - Overall Top Searches

국내뉴스/사회 - Domestic News / Society

만화/웹툰 - Comics/Webtoons

영화 - Movies

음악 - Music

인물 - Newsmakers

IT

TV 프로그램 - TV Programs

게임 – Games

🇰🇷 종합

Overall Top 10 Google searches in Korea 2016

아가씨
"Agassi" aka The Handmaiden.
Sexy lesbian thriller film from director Park Chan-wook, and starring Kim Minhee, who in real life ran off with another prominent film director.

태양의 후예
Descendants of the Sun
TV drama with a modern wartime setting and love between a soldier and a doctor, and was extremely popular throughout Asia.

박유천
Park Yoochun
TV drama actor and all around heart-throb (you may know him from K-pop group JYJ and the show "Rooftop Prince"), but famous this year for allegedly raping up to 4 hookers in a "premium" entertainment bar bathroom and his own home's bathroom. Many netizens were nearly more interested in his apparent bathroom fetish than the sex itself. But the story had a happyish ending. It turns out it was just good old fashioned bathroom hooker sex; not rape.

응답하라 1988
Reply 1988
Another installment of the beautifully nostalgic "Reply ___" drama series. Actress and K-pop singer Hyeri from Girls' Day starred. If you ask me, she suits acting even better than singing. You may also recognize her from the Korea Times' comments section.

최순실
Choi Soon-sil The woman who needs no introduction. President Park's uber-corrupt confidant who brought the floodgates down on South Korean politics this year. See Ask A Korean's brilliant series of articles on her.

내부자들 Inside Men
A movie about corruption at the highest levels. Very appropriate for this year. Released just before Choi Soon-sil-gate, but invigorated no doubt by it. Features the Terminator himself Lee Byung-hun with a very creepy fake hand. Highly praised, but I saw it and was not impressed at all. But if you like formulaic K-drama, you'll be right at home.

국내뉴스/사회 - Domestic News / Society

지진
Earthquake
Korea suffered a massive 5.8 earthquake in the city of Gyeongju this year, Korea's strongest ever.

알파고
AlphaGo
(already discussed)

박근핵 닷컴
Park Geun Hack dot com
A wordplay term combining President Park Geun-hye and tanhack (탄핵) meaning "impeach". Through the website parkgeunhack.com, you can sign a petition voicing your support for her impeachment that is then sent to your local lawmaker.

필리버스터
Filibuster
Lawmakers (led by the Saenuri party) attempted to pass a sweeping anti-terrorism law (테러방지법). Minjoo party lawmakers attempted a filibuster to prevent its passing. It failed and the law was passed.

Big Layoffs in Shipbuilding, Shipping Deepen Economic Woes Massive layoffs in the shipbuilding and shipping industries caused unemployment to soar and more households to fall into debt. Hanjin Shipping, once Korea's No. 1 shipping company, went bankrupt while Hyundai Merchant Marine failed to join by the world's biggest container-shipping alliance 2M, dealing a further blow to the domestic industry. Daewoo Shipbuilding and Marine Engineering, which is in the process of laying off huge numbers of workers, is still confronted with mounting losses. [Chosun Ilbo]

Re: 제로부터 시작하는 이세계 생활Re:Zero -Starting Life in Another World-
OK they have got to be screwing with me with these titles here. Just click the links for Wikipedia sources. I don't know anything about this stuff.

외모지상주의
Lookism
Korean webtoon by Taejoon Park. You can read it in Indonesian on Naver's excellent webtoons site, but I couldn't find an English version. Here's a description: One night, he wakes up to discover that he is suddenly tall, fit, and incredibly handsome. He returns to the bedroom to find his other unattractive body sleeping. He now has one mind, and two bodies. Whenever one falls asleep, the other is awakened, and whenever one is woken up, the other falls asleep. Afraid to show up at school for fear of being bullied again, he decides to use his new body for school. But how will it go? Will he finally be accepted? [Lookism (Webcomic)]

영화 – Movies

아가씨
The Handmaiden (already discussed)

내부자들
Inside Men (already discussed)

곡성
Gokseong aka The Wailing
Weird shamanistic crime drama movie. After watching this I wanted those 2 hours of my life back. Pretty sure there were some major plot holes, or else it just left some major holes in my brain.

PPAP Pen Pineapple Apple Pen, yes that song that was the bane of any English teachers trying to teach the "I have a ___" phrase. Seems like every year there's one. Pretty sure last year's must have been "Mother, Father,... GENTLEMAN."

시간을 달려서(여자친구)
Running Through Time, aka "Rough", by girl group Girlfriend

일상으로의 초대(음악대장)
"Invitation to Routine" by famous Korean singer Shin Hae-chul (신해철), as performed by our friend Ha Hyun-woo apparently, again on Masked Singer.

걱정말아요 그대(음악대장)
"Don't Worry" originally by Deulgukhwa but, you guessed it, performed by Ha Hyun-woo on Masked Singer. The song was also popular again recently for its prominent use in the popular drama Reply 1988.

내가 저지른 사랑(임창정)
"The Love I Committed" by singer Lim Chang-jung. Interesting title considering his muchyounger girlfriend. I don't know why exactly, but it's hard to see his face and not get a very weird feeling, something between wanting to giggle and being afraid he might kill you.

Forever(비와이)
A song from BewhY from his performance on rap competition show "Show Me the Money".

이엘
Lee El, the sexy actress from the movie "Inside Men" and the TV drama "Goblin."

신주평
Shin Ju Pyeong, the husband of Chung Yoora, and therefore the son-in-law of Choi Soon-sil. Choi never liked him, and now he's back in Korea "separated" from his wife and child who are still in Germany. As far as I can tell, he's a bit of a victim in all this. For example, there was a rumor about him ditching army service thanks to his Choi connection, but it was false.

TV 프로그램 – TV Shows

I'm not usually a drama fan, so I'm afraid I don't have much to say on these. Luckily most have extensive English summaries and commentary on other K-pop related sites.

태양의 후예
Descendants of the Sun

응답하라 1988
Reply 1988

도깨비
Goblin (already mentioned)

치즈인더트랩
Cheese in the Trap

푸른 바다의 전설
Legend of the Blue Sea, a mermaid drama with the glorious Jun Jihyun and heartthrob Lee Minho. Jun Jihyun recently delivered a baby, and how she can still look so good in real life is more mysterious than the show's mermaid theme.

구르미 그린 달빛Love in the Moonlight, a period drama with Park Bogum who hit it big as Taek in "Reply 1988." In this particular drama, he's adored by old ladies who want him as a son... or maybe more?

프로듀스 101Produce 101. A K-pop girl group formation competition, which gave rise to the group I.O.I.

또 오해영
Another Oh Hae Young, a show with failed idol singer Seo Hyun-jin. Sorry, cheap jab. I've never seen it actually.